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Im gonna give this PC thing one more try. Swung by HF today and picked up a pound of red (they had lots..no shortage here). Gonna sing by walmart after work and get some airsoft BBs (black i heard works best).
What is the best way to remove the bullets from the tub? I was thinking maybe a pair of those rubber tipped tongs like Amanda used for removing stuff from a boiling pot of water.
I use STD small needle nose pliers .. if you are careful you will remove very little to no powder
Dipping the pliers in the powder first helps as well
Hemostats from HF. 4-6" long
These right here.Quote:
Originally Posted by popper
But the guns do a much more repeatable job if you're in a humid area.
Im only doing a small batch. I was VERY disapointed with the results the first time, but figured what the heck, and desided to give it another go.
While you are at Wal Mart for the bbs go by the fishing stuff and get a hook remover. coat the tips with PC. and remove the locks,
Curved hemostat from HF here too. I always grab ogive and never driving bands. I never do more than 50 230gr 45's, bigger and heavier around 35, smaller and lighter around 70, that's quantity per tumble/batch. I do 3 mins swirl, 30 seconds shake. Up and down, allowing powder to settle on bullets, fills in the tough spots in short order. If results not satisfactory, baking is not gonna make them better. Add powder and go again. I start new batches with BB's enough to cover bottom 2 BB's deep and 5 scoops (lee 1.2cc) of powder.
Attachment 118335
There's too many of us who've had success. Don't give up, you'll figure out. Photo for inspiration :)
I don't know how yall are not getting leading. Both tiimes I have tried it, it leads horribly.
Is your area particularly humid? Humidity can inhibit dry tumbling. I haven't tried the BB method.
However while the gun has more of an upfront cost, it's definitely the most consistent method. Sometimes you have to pay to play, and if environmental conditions won't let you tumble your boolits, you might not be able to PC without a gun.
The nitrile mechanics gloves with fingers coated with the powder allow you to remove boolits from tub without removing the powder. I got some leading with the Powder By The Bound durable gold, it seemed not to cure as tough as others. The black and the blue cured very hard and tough.
prs
if you are giving it one last try I would not recommenced HF powder. I used the red and had some success, but if I had not gotten and tried powder from SMOKE I would have not still been doing the DTASBB method. I would have switched to ESPCQuote:
Originally Posted by Bullshop Junior
my one suggestion would be to get some quality powder and I think you will be much happier with results. Yes I know there are people using the red HF and it works, but in my experience the quality powder works like 10X better.
I have not gotten a chance to shoot PC yet as I have been tweaking the seating and crimping, but now that I have that down I will be out at the range next week hopefully. I can then report on any leading
here is the set of tweezers I bought for picking the boolits out. I use the bent tip pair held upside down and grab the boolit by the bottom lube groove. the tip is small enough to go right in the lube groove, and I then have a strong enough grip to tap off any extra powder .
http://www.harborfreight.com/6-pc-fi...set-93598.html
what caliber are you coating that is leading for you ?? I run the risk of sounding stupid but did you slug your barrel ??
So far, i have tried the PC in two guns. A Puma 454 carbine, and a Marlin 32WS. Both of them were slugged with bullets sized .002" over.
Save your money and purchase some better and also more expensive POWDERS
and forget the Harbor Freight stuff.
Make sure the oven you're using reaches the correct temps for a long
enough time frame.
I tried ASBBDT with powder from Prismatic Powders. One color, copper wash, worked amazingly! The finish is a top coat, mostly clear with some copper color. It stuck so well that I ended up dumping the boolits and ASBBs onto a cookie sheet and then used hemostats to set the boolits onto non stick foil. The powder stayed stuck to the boolits, even on a foggy morning on the Northern Coast of CA. After baking, there were no marks or divots on the surface and they appeared as smooth as ESPCd boolits.
Sparkle Pink worked so-so, gloss black worked so-so, but the copper wash worked great. Copper Plate worked as well as HF flat black which is to say no-go. If I need to cover a bunch of pistol boolits I can ASBBDT and bake on foil or parchment paper like a dream. I've taken to mixing the Copper Plate (comes out gold) with Copper Wash and Sparkle Pibk (ratio of 2-2-1) to get a copper looking boolit. I will try a different copper color from Prismatic Powder when I buy some neon lime green for zombie boolits. I will try the green ASBBDT when I get some but for now the Copper Wash dry tumbles great!
Also, make sure you are following the directions of the POWDER manufacturer in regards to curing. Some of the powders I have bought on Ebay have come with instructions saying the part you are coating needs to be up to temperature before the time begins on curing. So it may say 10 minutes at 375 degrees, but that means once the bullets have reached 375 degrees THEN the time starts. So curing 10 minutes at 375 degrees may actually take 20 minutes from the time you put it in the oven (which should have already been preheated).
If your bullets are sized properly (which it sounds like yours were) and the bullet is not being damaged during seating...the only thing I can see left is not curing properly.